Auflistung nach Autor:in "Elonheimo, Hanna"

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Environmental substances associated with osteoporosis - a scoping review
(2021) Elonheimo, Hanna; Kolossa-Gehring, Marike; Tolonen, Hanna; Lange, Rosa
Introduction: Osteoporosis is a disease having adverse effects on bone health and causing fragility fractures. Osteoporosis affects approximately 200 million people worldwide, and nearly 9 million fractures occur annually. Evidence exists that, in addition to traditional risk factors, certain environmental substances may increase the risk of osteoporosis. Methods: The European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) is a joint program coordinating and advancing human biomonitoring in Europe. HBM4EU investigates citizens' exposure to several environmental substances and their plausible health effects aiming to contribute to policymaking. In HBM4EU, 18 priority substances or substance groups were selected. For each, a scoping document was prepared summarizing existing knowledge and health effects. This scoping review is based on these chemical-specific scoping documents and complementary literature review. Results: A possible link between osteoporosis and the body burden of heavy metals, such as cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb), and industrial chemicals such as phthalates and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) was identified. Conclusions: Evidence shows that environmental substances may be related to osteoporosis as an adverse health effect. Nevertheless, more epidemiological research on the relationship between health effects and exposure to these chemicals is needed. Study results are incoherent, and pervasive epidemiological studies regarding the chemical exposure are lacking. © 2021 by the authors
HBM4EU feasibility studies: Lessons learned in combining health and human biomonitoring studies
(2022) Elonheimo, Hanna; Uusitalo, Kari; Kolossa-Gehring, Marike; Moore, Sonja
HBM4EU feasibility studies: Lessons learned in combining health and human biomonitoring studies
(2023) Elonheimo, Hanna; David, Madlen; Uusitalo, Karoliina; Moore, Sonja; Kolossa-Gehring, Marike
Background: The European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU) is a joint program evaluating humans-exposure to several environmental substances and their potential health effects. One of the main objectives ofHBM4EU is to make use of human biomonitoring (HBM) to assess human exposure to chemicals in Europe tobetter understand the associated health impacts and to improve chemical risk assessment. In parallel to HBMstudies, health examination surveys (HESs), nutrition/dietary surveys, and disease specific health surveys areconducted in many European countries. In HESs, information collected by questionnaire(s) is supplemented withphysical examinations and analysis of clinical and biological biomarkers in biological samples. HBM and healthexamination survey (HES) use similar data collection methods and infrastructures hence the feasibility ofcombining these two is explored in this paper. Methods: Within HBM4EU, three feasibility studies (in Finland, Germany, and UK/England) were conducted toevaluate opportunities and obstacles of combining HBM and health studies. In this paper we report lessonslearned from these feasibility studies. Results: The Finnish feasibility study called KouBio-KUOPIO study was a new initiative without links to existingstudies. The German feasibility study added a HBM module to the first follow-up examination of the LIFE-Adult-Study, a population-based cohort study. The UK feasibility integrates a sustainable HBM module into the HealthSurvey for England (HSfE), an annual health examination survey. Benefits of combining HBM and HESs includethe use of shared infrastructures. Furthermore, participants can receive additional health information from HES,and participation rates tend to be higher due to the potential to obtain personal health information. Preparatoryphases including obtaining ethical approval can be time-consuming and complicated. Recruitment of participantsand low participation rates are common concerns in survey research and therefore designing user-friendly. 2022 The Authors